Mendoza

Amie and I were comatose. We cannot keep up. Even sleeping in until 11am did us no good. We were completely useless, however, that didn’t stop our hosts. They had a whole day planned for us. Camila was to take us on a city tour until Francisco came home from work for lunch, then we were going to pressure wash the motorcycle while the girls went shopping, and finish the afternoon at a vineyard wine tasting. Finally, dinner at Walters.

There are a lot of cities that are great to visit, but few that I could say I would like to live. Mendoza is one. Its about 600,000 people. Not too big, not too small. The climate is mild and dry. The downtown has incredibly wide avenues with old-growth trees offering abundant shade. There is a central park like NYC’s or Golden Gate park, complete with a lake, and all types of sporting clubs (rowing, golf, basketball, soccer, etc). Its got a bunch of universities and a solid 5 blocks dedicated to bars and restaurants. It is also the wine capitol of South America.

Camila was an excellent guide and we enjoyed seeing the city in style (from the air conditioned Chevy S-10). Marta, the maid, made us an amazing lunch (and did our laundry) and we rushed around doing all of the activities I described in the first paragraph. After a few glasses of wine at the vineyard I was really struggling to stay awake.

At 10:30 we arrived at Walter’s castle for dinner. His home is incredible. Brick porticos separate the living room and the foyer and kitchen. The backyard is even more fantastic if that is possible with 20’ high walls covered in vines, manicured lawn and garden, pool, fanciful lighting, and a table setting almost to pleasant to burden with a meal. Amie and I had mentioned in passing that we absolutely love Bife de Chorizo (sirloin steak) and Empenadas de Carne (meat pies). We were amazed to see mountains of perfectly made Empenadas on the table and thick juicy steaks on the grill. These people are the best!

Ice cream bomb!

Yoshita gets her second bath of the trip

Nothing like free wine and friends

(see above)

The grand tour

Betty treated us right with some homemade Empenadas

Perfect and delicous!

Sweet sweet Bife de Chorizo

Francisco's party trick (moments before he was covered in wine)